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Ed Laverack journal: winter training, team launch, eRacing

Ed Laverack and three other riders are keeping rider journals for The British Continental this season. Ed rides for the new UCI Continental team SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling this season. This is Ed’s second journal entry…

Winter training

My winter training has been full of intensity, but, maybe surprisingly, not full of hours on the bike. I’d prefer to give you as much insight and value as possible from this, my second, journal entry.

From November 2017 to the end of January 2018 I did 19 hours a week training, averaging around 807 TSS [Training Stress Score, measuring the relative intensity, duration, and frequency of workouts]. For reference, a week-long stage race might see a TSS of 1300. In the same months just gone, I’ve slotted in 13 hours a week with 628 TSS as my average weekly stress.

The difference is clear to see, and maybe needs an explanation…

It’s times like these I love. The adversity. It’s made things hard for me, but at the same time, I’ve realised how lucky I’ve been

Condor were very kind to me, allowing me to keep the Leggero until January. This allowed me to still train with a power meter on the road. But since returning the bike I have been on a borrowed time trial bike with a 6-year-old PowerTap wheel. It’s times like these I love. The adversity. It’s made things hard for me, but at the same time, I’ve realised how lucky I’ve been. Being grateful and humbling yourself can be very powerful. My closest friends offered me their bikes to use on the road but I politely turned them down and whenever I went out I did so on my 66-inch fixed wheel bike I bought for £150 from a mate a while back. Not only is it great fun to ride, it serves a purpose. I found out things about myself on that bike.

It’s important to note that I spent 80% of my weekly training on Zwift, racing and doing high-quality intervals, with hardly any ‘middle ground’ riding.

The reduction in hours would surely have an impact on my performances and overall fitness though right? Well, I thought so, until I did a test. My regular 20 minute power test (I know there are plenty of other ways but I just enjoy this one) gave me an indication that perhaps all the research was right regarding ‘more is not better’. My test came in January, at the end of an 8-week block of carefully balanced training. Here are the results:

Date

Power

25 November 2017

335w

26 November 2018

335w

10 February 2018

359w

19 February 2019

350w

Ed’s YouTube video explaining his 20 minute power test numbers

My test came a month before I did the same test in 2018. So we could theorise that those extra 9 watts could be found in the next month of training.

I put a lot of this down to the intensities I am working at. Being very smart about the weekly balance and being very consistent. I guess avoiding illness has helped that.

New SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling team bike. Photo: Ed Laverack

Team launch

Fast forward a week or two and I’m at the SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling team launch in Leeds [Sunday 24 Feb]. It was an opportunity to meet the sponsors, to see what the riders can do for them in terms of publicity and endorsements. The highlight of the weekend was receiving the team bike. A wonderfully simplistic geometry and deep blue paint job from SwiftCarbon bikes. As you can imagine, due to my circumstances, I am very appreciative of the bike and the sponsors coming on board in light of the climate change in UK cycling late last year.

I always see the positive side though, and as the lightest man by 4kg in the top 15, I produced arguably the best sprint I’ve done on an indoor trainer

The British Cycling eRacing Championships qualifier was on the same morning. It’s the first time a cycling team has used Zwift as part of their team launch, and in doing so we were able to get online content for Wahoo. I finished 11th, missing out on 10th by 0.01s, the top 10 qualify for the final event in a physical location in London. I always see the positive side though, and as the lightest man by 4kg in the top 15, I produced arguably the best sprint I’ve done on an indoor trainer.

The team launch has come later than most would expect but that doesn’t matter. We all know each other now, and are looking forward to taking on the other teams as a unit. The team will head out to Europe soon for a bunch of races in the first week of March, Le Samyn being one. I will be spending more time in Wales though, as my preparation takes me down a different path ahead of my first ‘A’ race of the season.